The Internet has become a useful source of information relating to goods and services, but because so many users and companies are connected to the Internet and providing information of their own, it is difficult to find relevant information among all available information. One area of information is in recommendations. As individuals and groups are now able to connect to the Internet and retrieve information from websites and via apps, and do so perhaps while in transit towards a geographic area of interest, they come to expect the ability to find information about goods and services being offered.
One source of information is in the form of websites hosted by or for providers. As used herein, “website” refers to a collection of one or more web pages displayable by a browser or other web client, the one or more web pages being hosted on a web server (i.e., a computer coupled to the Internet, or other network over which communication occurs) that responds to requests for pages hosted thereon. An example might be a restaurant that generates information about its hours, pictures of its dining room, contact information, history, menus and other offerings, then puts that information into a suitable form (such as HTML pages, dynamically generated pages, etc.), stores those pages in electronic storage accessible by the web server (hosted by the restaurant or perhaps a company that specializes in web presence that provides such services to the restaurant), and then serves those pages as client devices request pages. The information might also be presented in another form, such as data supplied to an app on the client device rather than a generic browser on the client device.
However, the restaurant gets the information to interested users, it is still limited to information sourced by that restaurant. A number of websites have been set up to collect information from other customers of a vendor of goods or services and provide reviews and comments and other details to other customers or potential customers. For example, there might be a website that focuses on hotels, another on restaurants, another on home repair, or a general one. However, these websites might just have too much information to be useful to a user searching for relevant recommendations.
An improved recommendations system is desirable.